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Singapore Budget 2019 to focus on support for the disadvantaged: Indranee

Elderly people sit outside a food centre at Chinatown in Singapore. (Photo:REUTERS/Edgar Su)

The upcoming Budget will cover social programmes that focus on helping the disadvantaged and underprivileged, said Second Minister for Finance and Education Indranee Rajah.

The government will consider ways to keep Singapore rejuvenated in terms of maintaining current infrastructure and developing new ones, Indranee added on Wednesday (30 January), according to media reports.

Speaking during a visit to to Big Heart Student Care centre in Lianhua Primary School, Indranee said, “On the social part obviously we’re looking at the elderly, healthcare and then of course those from disadvantaged backgrounds and how do we make all of these sustainable.”

The minister declined to say if social spending this year would be higher than in 2018, noting that spending had more than doubled in the past decade.

Among the areas that Finance Minister Heng Swee Keat, who will be presenting the Budget to Parliament on 18 February, will focus on are healthcare and defence spending.